Yesterday I got a call from “Alex,” an agent at the New Age Literary Agency, offering me the opportunity, because I am a New York Times bestselling author, to sign my books at their booth at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books …and they might even consider representing me.
How exciting!
I’ve always wanted to be represented by a literary agency that charges an upfront fee & operates out of “Mail Boxes Times” in Beverly Hills. They don’t have any literary agents, but I can copy my keys, take a passport photo, or notarize my documents when I visit! They will even publish my next book for me so I won’t have to worry about selling it to a publisher. Amazing!
So I returned their call today…and recorded it (and, as it turns out, so did they!)
I am thrilled for you to at last be discovered!!! Hope it goes well. Kateri
Wow! Thanks so much for doing that and sharing. Some day when I have a book ready to publish I will know not to fall for this. It WAS a lot of fun to listen. You WERE very kind in your tone. Have fun at the festival!
That is really neat. Did a great job on the scammer
Oh my goodness, yes what a scam for sure. You should call them back & continue the conversation, but he knew he wasnt going to get you to consent. You did a great job!
Thank you for sharing & making my Monday smile!
I think his language skills alone were telling. He was hardly a critic or someone able to even judge literary worth.
Btw I finished Calico; not my cup of tea as I was surprised re the time warp BUT gotta say, it really stuck with me. Haunted me for several weeks thinking about the fore thought going into investments and family inheritance. Brilliant nevertheless! I’m back with Det. Ronin. In the middle and loving her locale; my locale. One day you’ll use Serra Retreat with Dick living doors away from me. Your fan, Cathy Fink
Sadly, these kinds of things do make money off vulnerable people. Thanks for highlighting the scam.
This was fun. Lotta scammers out there.
I’d like to hear your explanation of how Hollywood actually works.
Happy that you don’t fall for these phony offers.
Wow! I hope this video helps others from falling for these so-called too-good-to-be-true offers. I love the way you handled this call.
“what if we’re dealing with a book that has more than 400 pages?”
thank you for this, lee. i’m going to see if they’re hiring! my goodness.
The dead air at the end of the call was priceless!
I love this! Companies like this call me constantly and are clearly clueless about me or my books. Bravo for calling them on it.
What is sad is I’m a novice writer who just wrote a couple of stories and put them on Amazon. This woman called me and I admit through my trepidation I did start to believe her. The firm name came up and it looked like a legitimate website. My wife tempered my enthusiasm when the woman said my book was approved by Simon and Shuster. I had to agree with my wife, it’s not that good. It does hurt that people can stoop this low. Thank you for exposing this scam.
Hi, there Lee-
I really appreciate you taking the time to do this video. I am trying to help my wonderful 90-year-old father turn this scam down. He has four self-published books on Amazon, has dreamed of being a successful writer his entire life, and is convinced that these folks will help him produce a movie from one of his books.
I will use your video to stop him from giving his banking information today.
I’ll let you know how it goes. These scammers scam our senior citizens from their savings.
Shameful!
Brilliant! Ha ha! I received an email from them this morning and immediately knew it was a scam after they “loved” the book I have yet to publish. You handled this really well. I’ll spread the word.
Just got solicited from two people in that agency.
It’s not an agency in any way, shape or form. It’s simply a scam targeting writers. How did you respond?
My name is Madame Daphne Jane Rogers Molson. I am an American, International Library of Poetry graduated Canadian author, who lives in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. I was called in March 2024 by Sarah Fuentes, a Senior Literary Agent who works at New Age Literary Agency, and asked to rebrand my author’s book, With Love To Humanity, Xlibris Publishers in Bloomington, Indiana published in fall 2010 and showcased to BEA, New York in May 2011, and to Chicago, Illinois’ National Book Exhibition in August, 2011, to Miami, Florida’s International Book Fair, and elsewhere. I paid $1000 USD she asked of me to pay the book rebranded by California vendors with a new ISBN number and front and back covers and new text with other she wished in it of the original book made, and I have been called by some thirty publishers and movie producers , and told the book will be made within three months and sold to a traditional publisher she asked to sell it to pay me and herself 15% of what the traditional publisher would give me. I have been asked pay $400 USD to have the book not rebranded yet shown in Manila and one thousand copies of the old book sold to South Korea if I pay someone there when Xlibris would not sell 1000 copies of the book to her associate Beatrice someone. That she knew I had cancer and still I finished the book and it has been submitted I still think she will get the book made and send me two copies of it and try to sell it to a traditional publisher she can sell it to, if I pay a professional reviewer over a thousand more dollars,. Persons knowing Harper Collins traditional publishers called me and asked me pay them as well. Telepub in Long Beach, California took my brother David four thousand american dollars telling him a nonsense they would make me a book and pay me to Netflix who offered to pay me. They never returned him his money and took the book in and started charging me thousands of dollars I could not ask my brother for because he was took four thousand dollars too much. One thousand copies of the book should have been made and were never made so Telepub has been bad mouthed about by New Age LIterary Agency. Sarah sent me 100 Hollywood publishers to adapt the book into a movie for an In-house critic of the Library of Congress highly recommended I be put in a movie. I have been asked pay another $549 USD for an international ISBN certificate I was told was another scam. Please contact me your opinion of this emailed you to, daphnemolson103@gmail.com. Has New Age Literary Agency been sued in a court of taking people monies. The scam talk is not testiftying she has money scammed who complains. Please answer me. Daphne Molson
To be blunt, you don’t seem to learn from your mistakes. They have you pegged as an easy mark and they will keep coming at your with more scams. STOP SENDIND MONEY to people who call you on the phone with publishing and movie offers! Real agents don’t ask you for money. Real publishers don’t ask you for money. Real movies studios don’t ask you for money. Money flows TO the author not FROM the author.
I love this. Thank you!
They’ve solicited me through calls and emails. And it could be that Alex fella who tried to contact me. This video is educational and needed for all new authors.
I received an email today from someone named Dan Garcia. No mention of the name of the company. Just a phone number. He offered me the moon. I’ve been traditionally published, my books are still selling with Kensington and I rejected their last contract because of health issues with my husband. Deadlines didn’t work for me any longer. I’m now self-pubbing my new series.
I’m so glad I researched this guy! Not that I was interested. Just curious. And I found your article.
Thank you SO much for this article and your call with him. You proved what I was thinking when I read his email. Shame on them!
Hello Terri: I also got a call from Dan Garcia from New Age Literary who also said he wanted to represent my book published by Leap Write Literary next April at the LA Times Book Fair. He told me that I owed Leap Write Literary $500 for this Book Fair. He hung up when I told them that Leap Write had scammed me and it was them that owed me. Still working on Leap Write Literary who impersonate legitimate people and cannot even get your book published and distributed after months. Nasty, evil people – we authors have got to fight back as there are some beautiful stories out there that need to be told by the not so rich and famous authors.
I just had an e-mail from Alex saying the same, thank you for the info, I certainly learned from it.
Best wishes to you Lee.
Lee Goldberg, you are my hero! Thank you so much for not only going above and beyond to expose these intolerable scammers from New Age Literary Agency, et al., but by providing Indie Authors at all levels of experience in book marketing and promotion with a genuine, LIVE guideline on how these scams operate in real time. I could literally hear this guy’s sweat pinging off his desk as he squirmed under the intensity of your questions and expressed knowledge of the business. Bravo, Sir, and thank you again for exposing these predators for what they are and for helping out your fellow authors in the best way possible!
Thank you for taking the time to make this video warning self-published authors about these scams. I am a published author (HarperCollins) but my father who has self published a few books is a frequent target of these types of scams and watching your video will hopefully help educate him to how these guys operate (or don’t). THANK YOU
Oh thank you kind sir for this info! I get 100 crazy emails+ calls a month!I have self published 4( kids books) Author house & working on my 5th & 6th) I don’t sell many with Amazon or B& Noble online but sure could use some help finding an honest agent!Happy Reading! Patty Ann Tillman-Wilson( available for storytime @schools& libraries ❤️ Wjandp73@yahoo.com
Thank you, Lee. I was actually looking up the name of New Age Literary after listening to their phone message to me about one of my books. I get calls at least weekly, and listen to the recorded voice presentation. It is never my intent to return these scam calls, but I was interested to look this particular agency up just to see what they are. Thank you so much for recording your call so I can see what kind of scams are out there.
Thank you Lee. You have confirmed everything I suspected when I saw the Beverly Hills postal address. I appreciate you.